Home > Amsterdam > Amsterdam Half-Day Tour to Zaanse Schans: Windmills, Clog Museum and Cheese Farm
USD $40.00
Amsterdam Half-Day Tour to Zaanse Schans: Windmills, Clog Museum and Cheese Farm
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Experience all that is typical Dutch in just a few hours. Learn about the process of making cheese, walk on wooden shoes, see the interior of a working windmill and the green-painted wooden houses and shops. A professional, experienced and friendly guide will accompany you throughout the village before you get time to further explore the village on your own.
Meet your guide and driver at a central meeting point, just across from Central Station Amsterdam. A comfortable, air-conditioned single deck bus will take you to the windmill village Zaanse Schans in just 20 minutes.
The windmill village Zaanse Schans is an open air museum that houses a collection of working windmills, wooden houses, barns and shops dating back to the 18th and 19th Century. All these buildings were brought here from 1961 on, bringing back to life this most prosperous period of the Zaan region.
In its golden age, the Zaan Region developed into an industrial area on a scale never seen before, with 600 active windmills, wooden factories powered by wind. In these small factories, many tasks were being executed with the aid of wind energy, including wood sawed by machine, grinding spices, oil for food and paint, flour, cocoa powder and many other things.
The prosperity in the 18th and 19th century can be seen in the Zaanse Schans windmill village in several ways. Alongside windmills, barns and other buildings, you will see beautiful houses that were originally built as home to rich windmill owners and merchants. These houses have attractive facades and have been painted in traditional colors such as green, beige and light blue.
Upon arrival in the village, your guide will take you on an orientation tour of the village. You will visit the clog museum, annex wooden shoemaker shop, and get to taste Dutch farmer cheese in the cheese farm. Then it is time to further explore the village on your own. Before you set off to discover the Zaanse Schans, your guide will give you further information on the unique character of Zaanse Schans, teach you local history and culture, and give you insider’s tips about what to do and where to go.
The tour took place as described and on time. The short ferry ride was neat. However, we had not anywhere near enough time to explore after the two presentations. In fact, we had to leave before our lunch was served. We went home starving and 50 Euro poorer cost of lunch. I would recommend visiting Zaanse Schans just do it on your own with a private driver/taxi/Uber so that you can have as much time as you would like to explore.
Review by: Lisa L, March 2018
This was an absolutely wonderful tour. It's only a 20 minute drive to get there from Amsterdam, and was well worth it. We learned about the history of the windmills, wooden shoes, and had a cheese demonstration. This was certainly a highlight of our trip, and I strongly recommend this to anyone who wants to truly experience Holland!
Review by: Diane H, March 2018
That was truly amazing, seeing how the clogs and the cheese were made, it was very interesting, you then get 1 hour to explore, there is a place where they make homemade waffles and candles, the waffles were delicious
Review by: You Rui N, January 2018
Our tour guide very professional. The village is more a living museum rather than a real village The shops was a bit expensive.
Review by: Riaan M, December 2017
This was really worth the money, tour guide very professional. The shops was a bit expensive, happy no extra entrance fee charged at the venue
Review by: nanda.ngirl, November 2017
We love the day we spent in the north of Amsterdam under our tour guide Maria's friendly guidance. Everyone working in the industrial town were so helpful and had excellent knowledge in their own fields. Will definitely recommend to other people.
Review by: Lior C, November 2017
Derek with his pleasant voice helped this sightseeing to be even better!_br/_ Wonderful choice.
Review by: gjbrewer, November 2017
I did enjoy this. It was a beautiful day and the windmills looked great. I sampled quite a few cheeses and bought some for a snack later. A good tour.
Review by: Kacapin, October 2017
Great coverage in a short period of time!
Review by: Christina L, October 2017
A little surprised the windmill and clog and cheese factory was all in the same place. Had we known we would have taken the train from Ams Central as it wasn't too far away. We were rushed through the small town and it was a giant tourist trap. The cheese was worth it.. but you can find in town.
Review by: Robert W, October 2017
Excellent tour guide for this enjoyable three hour trip to see the windmills at Zannse Schans. The trip left on time, returned on time,_br/_ and there was ample time to wander around to visit some of the windmills.
Review by: anoop.samant, September 2017
Awesome tour. We had an amazing guide and loved the tour of the cheese shop and also saw making of the clogs. There were a lot of farm animals too. Viator did a great job in coordinating the tour. Definitely worth a visit. Highly recommended.
Review by: E A H, September 2017
We really enjoyed our visit, but it was not so much of a tour but a ride there. We ate and bought cheese, and where charmed by the animals a d of course the windmills. You could probably do this trip equally well independently.
Review by: Susan S, September 2017
Great tour! We got to see the windmills, the clog museum and the cheese farm. It was definitely worth the short drive from the city.
Review by: samj, September 2017
This was a fun little excursion for our last day in Amsterdam while we waited for our flight out. The pick-up location sounded complicated to me but was actually very easy to find once we got to Amsterdam Centraal Station. On the short drive to Zaanse Schans our tour guide told us some history and gave us fun facts about Amsterdam and the Netherlands as well as about the area we'd be going to. Zaanse Schans was very fun and interesting! We got to watch a clog making demonstration at the clog museum and try at least a dozen different kinds of cheeses at the cheese farm as well as chocolates and waffles. The windmills were stunning and I loved learning about their history. I would definitely recommend this to anyone with a few spare hours in Amsterdam, especially at such a low price.
Review by: tjsfree04, September 2017
Really great trip! The guide and driver were awesome!
Review by: Ana C, September 2017
Amazing place. We had a very nice ride going towards the place. Another spectacular place we've visited in Europe. I wanna go back if time permits.
Review by: John I, September 2017
We had a nice time on this excursion even though many would say it's little more than a high end tourist trap and I would understand their assessment of the event. Our guide was wonderful but we were somewhat delayed at nearly every turn as he had to do a bilingual presentation every time he wanted to show us something. I would highly recommend keeping this tour to a single language event. Allow for example the Spanish speaking folks specific tour times and allow English speakers different times. The ride to Zaanse Schans was scenic and whilst there we enjoyed the scenery of older, well kept homes many of which have been turned into souvenir kiosks. The goods in the kiosks were generally quite good and appropriate to the area but there seemed to be an overload of all the stuff which turned it into a bit of a junky display. We did the clog museum first and the demonstration of the clog making was very interesting but it it didn't last long before we were turned loose into the shop with 1000's of clog souvenirs of all sizes and colors. The cheese processing demonstration was also very short with a couple of tools used in cheese production in evidence and then we were turned into the shop for tasting cheese and chocolates with about 300 of our newest acquaintances. It was borderline chaos as folks from all over the globe were jockeying for a chance to grab a cheese tidbit. This was pretty frustrating and time consuming. We didn't get a chance to get out to the windmills but that was OK as we had visited KInderdjik a few days earlier and got an in-depth explanation of how they worked and why. We enjoyed looking at some of the farm animals on display and walking around the community. We certainly could have spent more time there to really make the trip worthwhile but we were rather rushed to get back to the bus.
Review by: Rhodora G, September 2017
This tour is recommended...we had enough time to see and experience the windmills, clog museum and cheese farm.
Review by: Dipen D, September 2017
This was a well worth tour to the Windmills - with very little time to spare this is an ideal tour although be mindful of where you have to pick up your tickets and location of the starting point of the tour as they are both different and this can lead to some confusion
Review by: lakelorain, August 2017
Experience the things that made Amsterdam famous. Watch a demonstration of clog making as well as a talk on cheese making. The highlight is the old windmills. Take your camera.
Review by: Johanna C, August 2017
The tour was very good really liked the clog making
Review by: Jesse T, August 2017
This tour was not good. We practically paid only for the transportation. The tour guide was not good. She disappeared after the visit to the clog museum and reappeared when we were on our way back._br/_ If I had to do this site again... I'd find my own transport to Zaanse Schans. Once there... you dont really need a guide.
Review by: glsomerville, August 2017
Great to see all the windmills etc. But could have seen them in other places. Great to see the clogs being made. Everything went smoothly.
Review by: glsomerville, July 2017
Great to see all the windmills etc. But could have seen them in other places. Great to see the clogs being made. Everything went smoothly.
Review by: tickle7210, July 2017
Good tour but 3 hours isn't long enough there. You see the clogs and cheese together then get an hour free time this needs to be longer in busy times, so you can see everything and do some shopping.
Review by: RAJEEV S, June 2017
Nice place to visit and learn the historical facts.
Review by: Christopher P, June 2017
This tour really fitted our trip. Great guide Evelyn, easy listen to. clog museum was very informative as was the cheese farm. Well worth it and would no hesitate to recommend this 3 hour tour.
Review by: Hannah D, June 2017
Don't waste your tie on this tour, you are basically just paying for transportation and you can take a train directly there from Centraal Station. Everything you do in Zaanse Schans is free, the clog museum, the cheese farm, the windmills. You're just paying for someone to point them out and it would be very easy to nevigate on your own. You don't get a lot of supplementary information. Even the information and demonstrations are free. Visit Zaanse Schans for sure but don't waste your money paying 40 for a ride.
Review by: Bob C, June 2017
Very pleased with the tour overall. Only issues I had was the confusion at the sign-in for the tour. The bus was late and not much information was being passed around. The guide needs some type of hat or shirt to let everyone know they were the guide. Would of helped with the confusion. But after leaving and getting on our way, the tour itself was very good. Would recommend.
Review by: Glenn M, May 2017
Awesome day out and very informative
Review by: Louise Z, May 2017
This was an okay tour. It was fine, but not great. Seems like they took us there just so we could shop. Didn't provide much information.
Review by: Matt, May 2017
This was a very nice tour. Watching the making of clogs and cheese was really nice. There is a little chocolate shop that has everything you could want. All the canals were frozen over so you could walk on them, a few people brought their skates, it was very cool.
Review by: Kim, May 2017
A very efficient tour that was worth the money. Loved the town, despite how touristy it was. Could have used an extra half hour to explore the windmills properly but otherwise it was worth it.
Review by: jane, May 2017
worth the money! amazing view
Review by: catherinefriedman, May 2017
I didn't feel that there was much commentary from the guide, just a little on the way there and back. I must have missed the opportunity or place to see cheese making, but the store was great and I got to try and buy some really good pesto flavored cheese. We did get to see them make clogs and hear about their history. There is a museum of sorts when you walk in that shows clogs from the very basic, just plain wood, to the elaborately bedazzled shoe! Really cool. The windmills were neat, but I didn't feel the need to pay an extra 4 euros to go inside one. Overall it was a nice tour.
Review by: Tanuja V, May 2017
The tour started late and the guide wasn and #39;t good she seemed to have had a tiring day. Her commentary was unexciting.
Review by: Marilena P, April 2017
Nice tour, we had rain but were able to see the mills. The meeting point was kind of confusing go with extra time.
Review by: Sharon B, April 2017
My family and I hubby and 3 kids age 7, 11 and 12 were very much looking forward to seeing the working windmills and the cheese factory and clog factory too. We'd booked the afternoon tour.
Review by: Ray M, April 2017
The staff are truly the highlight of the tour, friendly and informative. The downside is Zaanse Schans is full of unmannered tourists which makes it hard to enjoy the area at your pace. For example when it is time to taste cheese make sure you stand directly in front of the cheese bowl and use your elbows to fend off those who are trying cheese for the first time - or it so it seemed. Additionally, people fight for seating during the clog carving. Zaanse Schans is nice to see - don't get me wrong - but the friendly staff cannot make up for the ill mannered fellow travelers you'll certainly be with.
Review by: Kimberly B, April 2017
Cool to see, but most definitely not worth the cost. This town is 15 mins from Amsterdam with all on site free entry. We established my friend and I could have taken an Uber there and back for about 20 euros. And spent the whole day there. So save your $40 each and just bus/cab there.
Review by: maryandclinton, March 2017
You will not see a village like this anywhere else in the world. About 10 windmills with most still working and several being used still working commercially. Clog factory and cheese makes are both fascinating.Scenery breathtaking
Review by: Renald D, March 2017
Loved the tour! Tour guide was very friendly and very good at explaining juggling between English and Spanish. I really recommend this one, and if you go in winter, get ready to suffer some cold :
Review by: Sharleen P, March 2017
Very beautiful tour, would recommend to any one.
Review by: Shay W, February 2017
This tour was really good . My Husband injured his foot just before getting on the bus and the driver and tour guide were so helpful . A big thank you to both of them .
Review by: rita, February 2017
Superbe half-day
Review by: Kyle E, February 2017
The trip was absolutely amazing! The Tour Guide was friendly, knowledgeable, and kind. When we went to see how the cheese was made, the tour guide bought a sandwich in the cheese store and i turned to see what was smelling so good, and he broke off half of his sandwich and shared it with me. I was very fortunate to experience such kindness throughout my stay in Amsterdam. Love the Dutch!
Review by: Amna M, January 2017
It was a great trip, only a short bus ride from the city center._br/_ Very informative, I learnt a lot about windmills, clog and cheese making._br/_ There are also nice shops where you can buy delicious cheeses and dips.
Review by: Mary R, January 2017
Good tour. Leah was our tour guide and did a great job. She spoke in both English and Spanish. We went to the clog factory first quick and interesting but I would have liked a little more info on the specific carvings on the clogs. The cheese factory offered 25 cheese and mustard samples that were delicious. The windmill tour was a bit disappointing in that you have to pay extra to see the windmill that produces the paints the Rembrandt used. Dress warmly because it is VERY windy. Quaint village. Good way to kill an afternoon.
Review by: Ronda E, January 2017
Loved everything about this tour and it also captured the interest of my 4-year old grandson. The coach was comfortable and I'd recommend sitting on the right side of the coach on the way to Zaase Schans as you'll see a lot more along the way. The driver and host were very professional and knowledgeable. It was just fascinating to see how clogs are made and learn about the cheese-making. The steps inside the windmill are very steep, so climbing up behind little ones is a must. Enjoy!
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